SG OwnBlog

We, the city educated have always looked down upon the village dwellers. Of course not all of us. And even those who do, don't do this all the time. But in general, it is true. This phenomenon is not restricted to India or any developing world but also all over the Industrial world. The perception of tribal populations is also nuanced. Some consider them exotic, some think they are uncivilized, some find them as an opportunity to proselytize, some wish to use them as cheap labor, some hope to drive them out for mining or dam projects, and so on. Very few consider them similar to us. This is very true for the Left leaning self proclaimed liberals. They are always at the forefront when demanding tribal rights. In some landmark cases they have achieved wonderful results that anyone, regardless of their political ideology can be proud of. But the politically biased conclusions they derive spoil the efficacy of such interventions. The worst being them called as interventions. The ver

As part of a survey of the residents of IIT Bombay regarding their perception of water quality and to some extent usage, we followed this questionnaire. Some interviews were done when we formulated the semi structured questions. These below are to basically quantify the data we get and make certain clear observations. What we expect - i. The investment made by different people from different strata in the purification of water in their own homes ii. The usage of water per person in different income groups iii. General awareness of water usage. We can also check if there is a difference in perception between male and female population surveyed. iv. Water literacy of the people can be understood. This can help the Institute to address any gaps necessary to either reduce wastage or improve efficiency etc. You can download the Questionnaire from here.

Santalekhola, a very beautiful calm and quiet place in the district of Darjeeling in W.B. It is not a very popular tourist spot still now, and I think that'why its virgin beauty attracted me so much.Here you don't need to run from one place to another, you only come here,take rest and feel the vibration of nature. The West Bengal forest dept.cottages are very good and reasonable priced and the ambiance is truly very soothing. "Khola" means in Nepali a small river, you can hear the rhythmic sound of water all the time. The birds, butterflies and the  sound of silence will create resonance with the nature and you.

The exams are pretty much over. Except one (Water), rest were pretty much okay. As the storm is over, the strong sense of foreboding is taking over. The feeling of dread of something that I know not. This is familiar feeling. Known territory. This land is mine. And I am going home. In the winter. For a month. For the first time in close to four years. To the mela that happens in our neighborhood. To the rides, and the fuchkas. All the familiar feelings that I had stored in my memory. The boxes that I had kept locked. The keys that I had thrown away. The sports rifle shooting shop where you were crying to take a few hits at the balloons along with your friends. The longing for some time even there, just for a few minutes remains. I pretended to not see you, as you did not 'see me'. Egos got the better of both, yours and mine. I walked past, off to home. I wish I had a time machine. I could go back, turn the clock back, snatched a few minutes, just a few hundred second

To love is easy. Being in love is a different ball game altogether. To fall in love all you need to do is nothing. You just see a girl do regular stuff and the regular stuff feels like the most extraordinary and beautiful thing to you. Then you think about her, fantasize about her, wonder about her, imagine talking, dancing, walking, etc with her and you realize that you are in love with her. Or at least severely infatuated with her. But what is truly difficult is staying in that state of altered reality. Imagine me in such situations. I would find the stony gaze of her as she passed without noticing me, not once but all the time. Oh that's lovely. How graciously she refuses every request of mine for a cup of coffee at a local coffee store brings me immense happiness. How I plunge into a sea of joy when she refuses to sit beside me in a bus that is crowded but for a lone seat by me. How sweet her voice does not sound when she does not pick up my numerous calls. And so on... Th

On a Friday we took to the Trustee of Jalvardhini Trust at Dadar. Please find the attached audio recording for reference .  On the last Saturday we went to Karjat, while returning from the field trip to Neral. Here is a short map for convenience. We noticed the rainwater harvesting techniques that were used at that point of time. Some of the pictures are as follows.

Mumbai, around Midnight  I usually talk to my mother every day for about half an hour on the phone. It is not we have a lot of things to talk about. But still, we continue. The usual discussions revolve around dogs and cats in our neighborhood back home, how folks back there are doing, the importance of by brother’s future choices, my provident fund and so on. Last night my mother experienced something interesting. This was about a man who lived in our neighborhood. She was in our ruby red Swift car and while returning home she saw the man in gloves feeding a few street dogs with his own bare hands. I mean he was literally putting morsels of food in the little mouths of the dogs. Our whole family loves dogs and this generosity touched my mother and she remembered it well enough to tell it to me. It was actually nice. We do see people dropping food off on the streets for street dogs to lick them clean. That is considerate enough. So what this man did was indeed special. My mother